Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

The Government policy of hear no evil, see no evil in the schools is now unfortunately coming to fruition. I want pay tribute to Ms Vicky Barron, the principal of CBS Primary School in Wexford town. The school made the decision to close because more than 10% of their pupils had Covid-19. She appropriately made the point on the radio that the HSE says this is not a school outbreak. What is it, then? It did not come out of the walls. Incredibly, the school has now been pressurised by the Department to reopen. The school has sent letters to parents to say it has been instructed to return to face-to-face learning with immediate effect.

The consequence of that is to place pupils, families and staff in danger. The Government has been incredibly reckless on the question of schools. There is not one high-efficiency particulate absorbing, HEPA, filter in the entire country which has been provided by the Department. There is not a carbon dioxide monitor in every classroom. There was the terrible decision to stop contact tracing. Will the Taoiseach now heed the calls from the Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO, and others to restart and expand contact tracing and to invest in ventilation and air filtration?

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